Abstract
The GOCE mission provides a unique gravity gradient dataset, which is used by most state-of-the-art global gravity field models. The quality of the gravity gradients of previous data releases degraded during the mission lifetime, which was often attributed to the increasing drag forces towards the end of the mission due to the approaching solar maximum and also, starting in August 2012, a sequence of five orbit lowerings. An imperfect calibration of the gravity gradiometer data was often suspected as root cause for the degradation. We present the novel method for the calibration of the GOCE gravity gradiometer data that was used for the official reprocessing of the GOCE gravity gradients in 2018. It is based on a comprehensive calibration model that includes quadratic factors and angular acceleration couplings as new calibration parameters. The calibration parameters are estimated from star tracker angular rates, gravity gradients calculated from a GRACE gravity field model and the condition that the three gradiometer arms measure the same non-gravitational acceleration. In addition to the GOCE data generated during science mode operations, we also use the data collected during satellite shaking mode operations. We demonstrate that applying the new method removes systematic errors to a large extent and, consequently, yields gravity gradients of superior and constant quality compared to previous data releases.
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Data Availability Statement
The GOCE datasets generated and analysed during the current study, except gradiometer data from shaking mode operations, are available in the GOCE Virtual Archive, http://eo-virtual-archive1.esa.int/GOCEL1.html. Gradiometer data from shaking mode operations are not publicly available, but access can be requested from the European Space Agency. The ITSG-Grace2014s gravity field model is available on the ICGEM web page, http://icgem.gfz-potsdam.de/home.
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Acknowledgements
Christian Siemes is very grateful to Björn Frommknecht for organising substantial computing resources, locating the required GOCE datasets in ESA’s data archive and granting uncomplicated data access. He is also grateful to Rune Floberghagen, who allowed him to spend a significant amount of time to work on the GOCE data. We are also grateful to Daniel Lamarre and Michael Fehringer for many discussions and sharing their knowledge on the gradiometer and the satellite system. Moritz Rexer and Anja Schlicht would like to acknowledge the DFG for partial funding of project AOBJ:620928. ESA is acknowledged for providing GOCE data.
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Christian Siemes performed the research, developed the calibration method and software, and wrote the paper. Moritz Rexer and Anja Schlicht performed an independent verification of the calibration results and suggested several improvements of the calibration method, including the estimation of all quadratic factors. Roger Haagmans provided scientific guidance and supported the development of the calibration method.
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Siemes, C., Rexer, M., Schlicht, A. et al. GOCE gradiometer data calibration. J Geod 93, 1603–1630 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00190-019-01271-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00190-019-01271-9